MRDPW sent ADFI two in-house contracts concluded by the previous leadership of the ministry
In December 2023, the department assigned to its company NCTR EAD activities for BGN 2.5 million, for which there is no capacity
The internal audit of the MRDPW found violations in the in-house awarding of two contracts between the ministry and the "National Center for Territorial Development" EAD, which is a consulting and design center for the department. The contracts were concluded by the previous management of the MRDPW in the period December 11-20, 2023 and have a total value of BGN 2,551,200.
The inspection was ordered by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Eng. Violeta Koritarova, and the audit report on it was sent under the competence of the Agency for State Financial Inspection. One of the main findings of the auditors is that at the time of presentation of the technical proposals for the implementation of the two contracts, NCTR EAD does not offer its own resources for their implementation, but to third parties.
The one contract with procurement violations is "Organization, management and consulting in the field of construction information modeling of investment C10.16 "Support of a pilot phase for the introduction of construction information modeling in investment design and construction, as a basis for digital reform of the construction sector in Bulgaria, according to the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan (NRSP)". Its value is BGN 2,397,600 and is being implemented with funding from the NRSP. Irregularities create a risk that the funds will not be reimbursed, but will remain at the expense of the budget of the MRDPW.
The second contract is "Project for IOUP for the entire territory of the Municipality of Tsarevo and its environmental assessment" worth BGN 153,600.
The performed inspection found that some of the experts in the implementation teams were not in employment or any other type of legal relationship with NCTR EAD before the conclusion of the contracts. The audit found that at the time of presentation of the technical proposals for their implementation, the applicant did not have its own resources for the implementation of the service. This contradicts the requirement of the Public Procurement Agency to apply the exceptions from the Public Procurement Act for the conclusion of in-house contracts.
Declarations of commitment are also missing for some of the experts who are not under an employment contract with NCTR EAD. This also does not give confidence that the company will have the resources to implement the two contracts for the entire period of their validity, which is part of the minimum requirements of the Contracting Authority, the audit report also states.
The auditors of MRDPW also checked the conclusion of a third in-house contract in the same period with the subject: "Overall review and preliminary study of the scope and tasks for the upcoming update of the Maritime Spatial Plan of the Republic of Bulgaria 2021-2035 - stage 1". In the case of the in-house award of BGN 249,600, no violations were found.